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Originally Posted by Tarolisol
In pairs you say, i guess someone should have informed my gerbils of that before one killed the other.
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There are a few possible explanations (believe me, I've seen gerbils do very bad things to their cagemates), but in general they are social animals and will be more active and inquisitive if they are paired. Two females from the same litter would be ideal.
Relative to Syrian hamsters, they are extremely easy-going. In my mind an ideal pet. They are diurnal (less likely than hamsters to keep you awake, although they certainly still will at times), live longer (maybe not such a good thing depending on your perspective), don't smell as bad as hamsters (they emit only about two drops of urine a day), and in my opinion are much more interesting animals. The only thing they don't have going for them is that they certainly are more rat-like than hamsters (rats are also delightful, it's unfortunate they can't be kept as pets in Alberta).
I would like to acquire a pair of jirds (think gerbils, except a foot long) at some point in time.